Appealing a Court Decision
I’m Eric Lanigan with Lanigan and Lanigan attorneys in Winter Park Florida. Appealing a Court Decision I want to talk for a minute about the appellate process and appealing a court decision. Most people you know when you watch courtroom drama on TV it’s always at the trial level. The witnesses are on the witness stand, the jury’s there. Who wants to watch a TV show about somebody making a legal argument in front of a panel of judges? That’s what an appeal is. An appeal is nothing more than, “I think this trial judge made a mistake.” Remember, trial judges are lawyers who decided they’d like to be a judge. Sometimes they were good lawyers, sometimes they were not good lawyers. Sometimes they’re experienced lawyers sometimes they’re lawyers who have almost no experience. So there’s nothing infallible about a judge and most judges will candidly tell you that. That they’re just another lawyer who’s trying to do his job. An Appeal is Where You Think a Judge Ruled Incorrectly So an appeal is when you have a situation where you think the judge has ruled incorrectly. If you go to the law library there are literally thousands of books of cases and everyone of those is an appeal. So there’s plenty of cases being appealed. There’s plenty of cases where someone believes fervently that the judge has made a mistake. And when he has it should be appealed. An Appeal is Expensive and Takes Time One of the problems with appeals is they’re expensive as most things in law are today there’s nothing cheap about doing an appeal. Especially if...Be Concise in What You Want to Appeal
Hi, I’m Winter Park, Florida, attorney Eric Lanigan. I want to talk today about the most important aspect of a Florida Appeals case and that is about being very concise. It’s always interesting to me that while appellate briefs should be direct and to the point, how often appellate briefs are rambling and imprecise. When you read the typical appellate briefs, of which there are three parts: The initial brief by the appellant, the answer brief by the appellee and then the final reply brief again by the appellant, that all of those things may be put together in excess of 100 pages. Yet when the court makes a decision, if you get a court opinion that is longer than four or five pages, it’s extremely rare. You think, well, all of these arguments took hundred or more pages to make, yet the final decision is only four or five pages. Which tells me that there was an awful lot of just junk and fluff in those appellate briefs that didn’t need to be there. So one of the things that we always try to do is to say we need to be concise and direct and to the point because that’s what the judge is trying to be when he’s writing his opinion. The other is to make sure that you pick the right battles to fight. Unlike the trial court where there’s maybe more the tendency to get everything out there because you never know what the jury is going to try to hang their hat on. In an appellate court you really need to evaluate and prioritize the...Do You Need a New Attorney in an Appeal?
Why Hire an Appeals Lawyer? You Need a Fresh Set of Eyes, Clear Slate to Assess Case Hi I’m Eric Lanigan of Lanigan and Lanigan in Winter Park, Florida. I and my son Roddy do appeals cases, appeals work in Florida and we’re often asked: “why would I hire an appellate lawyer vs. just having my trial lawyer handle the appeal?” First of all if you’ve got a trial lawyer who understands the distinctions between appeals and trial work and the different style and methodology behind it, the answer is probably not. Trial Lawyers May Focus on Past Issues One compelling argument which is often made which I think has a lot of merit is that the trial lawyer tends to be continuously focused on the same things. Whereas someone who’s going to come in and do the appeal brings in a fresh perspective and is not tied up in the minutia in what went on at the trial court level and so he can bring a fresh perspective and may see errors that occurred that the trial lawyer doesn’t at first recognize because they’re so focused on the things that to them were in error by the trial court. So it’s a fresh set of eyes to review the case and to look for errors by the trial court. Different Style Needed for an Appeal There’s also very much I think, a difference in style in the presentation of an appeal vs. a trial. Especially if you’re doing a trial, whether civil or criminal that is before a jury. Because every trial lawyer knows that you never know...Appeals Q&A: Can You and Should You Appeal Your Case?
Florida Appeals Cases: Should You Appeal? Eric Lanigan has practiced Florida law since 1976. He has presented Florida appeals cases for both appellees and appellants. The very basic information of appeals and how they work are very straightforward, yet need to be explained for anyone who believes that their case could be won, overturned, their sentence changed, a jury award altered, etc. Eric eplains that an appeal is essentially nothing more than having a higher court review and determine whether or not a legal ruling by a lower court was correct. And it is strictly as to the application of law not interpretation of fact. So typically a trial court will make some kind of legal ruling. For instance whether or not to allow a particular document or other item into evidence. And if the lawyers believe that the trial court was not correct in the application of the law then they appeal that ruling to the higher court. And typically a county court appeals to the circuit court. And if something appeals in the circuit court then you appeal to the appellate court. And if you believe that the appellate court is in error, then you appeal to the Supreme Court. So it’s basically a method for a higher court to review the application of law of a lower court. Who Decides an Appeal? If you’re in a Florida county court, which in Florida involves cases worth less than $15,000 in damages and you believe that the county court judge made an error in the application of law or the interpretation of law, then your appeal goes to the...What is an Appeal?
An appeal is a request by a losing party in a lawsuit for a higher court’s review of the decision made in a lower court.
The appeal is asking a higher court to review an already decided case to have a verdict, sentence, conviction changed. There has to be an error made by the lower court as decided by the higher court.
